New York Restaurant Serves Up Silent Treatment

The ruling was a victory for companies including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper Snapple, which had argued that the law would do little to address obesity while imposing unnecessary costs. The restaurant industry and several business groups also had filed papers in support of the lawsuit. Bloomberg said on Thursday he expects the state’s top court to overturn the lower-court rulings. The soda ban “would help save lives, and we are confident the Appeals court will uphold the Board of Health’s rule,” he said in a statement, noting that excessive soda consumption is linked to obesity and diabetes, which kill at least 5,000 New Yorkers each year. A spokesman for the American Beverage Association, a trade group and the lead plaintiff in the case, said the group looked forward to a final decision on the ban. The city had argued that the lower appeals court had ignored decades of case law establishing that the health board has unique powers to regulate public health. “(The Court of Appeals) has long recognized that the board of health is not a typical administrative agency, but rather, is an entity with legislative authority,” city lawyer Fay Ng wrote. During his three terms, Bloomberg has made public health a signature issue, prohibiting smoking in restaurants, bars and parks; banning trans fats; and requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts. @yahoofinance on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook Related Content Chart Your most recently viewed tickers will automatically show up here if you type a ticker in the “Enter symbol/company” at the bottom of this module. You need to enable your browser cookies to view your most recent quotes. Search for share prices Terms Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE, and NYSEAmex when available. See also delay times for other exchanges . Quotes and other information supplied by independent providers identified on the Yahoo! Finance partner page .

View gallery At a restaurant in New York, patrons are prohibited from talking during four-course meals (AFP Photo/Mario Tama) New York City (AFP) – At the table, silence is golden, especially in noisy New York. That’s the gamble a young restaurant owner is taking with patrons, who are prohibited from talking during four-course meals. The project, launched a month ago at Eat in Brooklyn’s fashionable Greenpoint neighborhood, has created a buzz in a city where restaurants are often so noisy that they trigger routine complaints. Customers have to reserve days in advance for the privilege of eating without speaking or hearing a word on Friday or Saturday night in the small room that seats 25. “I want to provide the opportunity for people to experience the food with a kind of intention and attention to the experience that isn’t usually afforded by a loud meal, especially in New York City,” manager Nicholas Nauman told AFP. Customers who dare break the golden rule during the $40 prix fixe meal are forced to finish their plate on a bench outside. Sitting at long, wooden tables adorned with stoneware, the clients play along while tasting a menu based on local organic ingredients. For an entire hour, they savor the food, watch one another and don’t say a word, as though cut off from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. Cell phones must also be turned off. Some struggle to keep serious in the face of an experience that is the polar opposite of the constant frenzy prevalent in New York, the city that never sleeps. Accolades from all around “We’re bringing our own intentionality to it as well,” explained the restaurant’s chef Elsa Schmitt, using a philosophical term for the mind’s power to stand in for things or concepts. “We know what is about to take place so we’re bringing our own energies to it.” As the dinner ends, after dessert, the silence ends. Nauman, 28, breaks the silence first with a “thank you guys,” and is greeted by applause from his customers.